Johyun Gallery will be participating in Art Basel Hong Kong 2025, which will be held from 26 to 30 March 2025 at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre. Established as Asia’s leading international art fair, it will feature 240 galleries from 42 countries and regions, and Johyun Gallery will be placed in the Galleries sector. In the Kabinett sector, Johyun Gallery will be presenting curated exhibitions of Kim Hong Joo and Kwon Dae Sup, while the main booth will showcase works by established figures such as Park Seo-Bo, Lee Bae, Kim Chong Hak, Claude Viallat, and Kishio Suga. In addition, contemporary paintings by leading contemporary artists such as Bosco Sodi, Lee Kwang Ho, Kang Kang Hoon, Jo Jong Sung, and Ahn Jisan will also be on show.

Johyun Gallery is pleased to present Kim Hong Joo and Kwon Dae Sup in the Kabinett sector of ABHK 2025. Kim Hong Joo is one of the most important artists in the history of Korean contemporary art who has consistently explored the fundamental possibilities of painting, and his practice is characterised by his painterly exploration of natural imagery such as flowers and foliage on large plain canvases, experimenting with the inherent dissonance between the physical reality and the pictorial image. Kim was featured in the ‘Lineages: Korean Art at The Met’ exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York last year. Kwon Dae Sup is known for his contemporary recontextualization of the traditional Korean ceramic style of moon jar, examining the liminal space between minimalism and complete abstraction in the simple form of the moon jar. This exhibition will highlight the formal restraint and depth of thought of both artists, foregrounding the meditative and introspective sensibility inherent in their art. Johyun Gallery_Seoul will also host a dual exhibition by Chung Chang-Sup and Kwon Dae Sup from 6 March, offering an in-depth engagement with Kwon’s nuanced realm of white porcelain.

The main gallery booths will firstly be occupied by Korean contemporary art masters Park Seo-Bo, Lee Bae and Kim Chong Hak, whose distinctive formal experiments have established the uniqueness of Korean contemporary art. Park Seo-Bo is a representative of the Korean monochrome painting movement, and the art fair will present his seminal Ecriture series, encompassing both chromatic and ceramic methodologies. Along with the coloured Ecriture, which are characterised by a pale lavender hue, his ceramic Ecriture, realized through kiln-fired clay rather than traditional Hanji (Korean traditional paper), will also be introduced. The adoption of ceramics as a medium enables the artist to attain heightened chromatic vibrancy, surpassing that of his earlier works on Hanji and is considered an important attempt to expand Park’s artistic experimentation. In February, Lee Bae culminated his official collateral exhibition at the 2024 Venice Biennale with a traditional Moon House Burning ceremony in Chungdo, South Korea. At ABHK, Lee will unveil a curated selection of his most emblematic works, including his Issu du Feu series. In addition to his Brushstroke Sculpture and Brushstroke paintings, which recontextualize the profound darkness of traditional ink paintings through the intrinsic materiality of charcoal, his practice embodies the gestural dynamism of brushstrokes through sculptural articulation, he explores the fundamental properties of charcoal, revealing the sculptural qualities of the intersection of matter and spirit, time and space.  Kim Chong Hak is well known for his original style of painting, which straddles the line between abstract and figurative. In addition to the ‘White Series’, which resembles the snow of Seorak Mountain, Kim will present works depicting wildflowers, butterflies, and birds from Korean nature. These works offer a contemporary reinterpretation of the concept of Ki-Woon-Saeng-Dong (氣韻生動), which encapsulates the dynamic vitality inherent in East Asian painting traditions, conveying a distinctly Korean sensibility through vivid chromaticity and gestural fluidity. Kim will hold a solo exhibition at the High Museum in Atlanta, USA, in April 2025, and another solo exhibition at Johyun Gallery in Busan in June.

The presentation also reveals the distinctive material explorations of internationally renowned artists. Claude Viallat, a pivotal figure in the avant-garde collective Support/Surface, investigates the interplay of chance and spontaneity through the permeation and diffusion of paint across diverse substrates. His signature textile compositions will be featured at Johyun Gallery’s presentation. Kishio Suga, a seminal figure of the Mono-ha movement, interrogates the inherent tensions between space and materiality, and has persistently challenged formal conventions through the innovative deployment of diverse materials. Two of his Assemblages will be on display at the fair. Kishio Suga is slated for a solo exhibition at Dia Beacon, New York, in July. Bosco Sodi, renowned for his articulation of the wabi-sabi aesthetics of imperfection through rugged surfaces and richly textured relief paintings, will unveil a selection of ten works at the fair.

In addition, Recent works from Kang Kang Hoon’s ‘Cotton’ series will be showcased. His works transcend mere representation, functioning as intermediaries that evoke emotional resonance in the viewer. Kang will hold a solo exhibition at Johyun Gallery_Seoul, commencing on 30 April. In addition, Ahn Jisan will unveil two new paintings that interrogate the liminal space between life and death, articulating its inherent anxieties through a narrative collage technique. Lee Kwang Ho, renowned for his hyperrealist approach, will introduce his Wetland series, where fluid and gestural abstraction is employed to evoke a tactile sensibility. Jo Jong Sung will present Landscape Seen from Moving Perspective, a contemporary interpretation of traditional Korean painting from a moving perspective. Additionally, he will participate in the post-Art Basel Hong Kong exhibition, <From Korea to Hong Kong: Korean Visions>, hosted by the Hong Kong Cultural Center from 3 April to 30 May.

Opening Hours
March 26 12:00 – 15:00 (VIP First Choice)  15:00 – 20:00 (VIP Preview)
March 27 12:00 – 16:00 (VIP Days)
March 28 12:00 – 16:00 (VIP Days)  14:00 – 20:00 (Public Days)
March 29 11:00 – 19:00 (Public Days)
March 30 12:00 – 18:00 (Public Days)

Address
ART BASEL HONG KONG 2025_ Booth IB29, Convention & Exhibition Centre 1 Harbour Road Wan Chai Hong Kong, China

Artist
Park Seo-Bo, Lee Bae, Kim Chong Hak, Kwon Dae Sup, Kim Hong Joo, Claude Viallat, Kishio Suga, Bosco Sodi, Lee Kwang Ho, Kang Kang Hoon, Jo Jong Sung, Ahn Jisan

Exhibition Dates
March 26 – March 30, 2025

Website
https://www.johyungallery.com

Instagram
https://www.instagram.com/johyungallery/

Contact
+82 051 747 8853
press@johyungallery.com

(Text and images courtesy of Johyun Gallery)